If you are a journalist wanting to take advantage of EPA databases to report on local (or even national) environmental conditions, EPA is offering a big-box store of goodies. It's called EPA Data Finder.

It's a step beyond the all-in-one EPA data interfaces many journalists are used to (such as Envirofacts [2]  or ECHO [3]), in that it catalogs some of the less-known specialized databases. It is unusual among government data programs in that it explicitly encourages third-party developers to build apps based on open agency data.

The home page for EPA Data Finder is here. [4] It is organized by topics and media (air, water, etc.). It links to an EPA-hosted "Data and Developer Forum." [5] It also has a very useful catalog of "other environmental data finders" [6] at other federal agencies.

EPA also encourages third-party developers through its "Developer Central" page. [7] This is not a pipe dream — since many apps have already been developed to use EPA data. You can find a catalog of available apps, often free, for your smartphone or desktop at EPA's "My Green Apps" page. [8]